Frontiers of Violence in North-East Africa: Genealogies of Conflict since c

1) Frontiers of Violence in North-East Africa: Genealogies of Conflict since c.1800 – Richard J. Reid
Oxford University Press | 2011 | PDF

Northeast Africa has one of the richest histories in the world, and yet also one of the most violent. Richard Reid offers an historical analysis of violent conflict in northeast Africa through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, incorporating the Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands and their escarpment and lowland peripheries, stretching between the modern Eritrean Red Sea coast and the southern and eastern borderlands of present day Ethiopia. Sudanese and Somali frontiers are also examined insofar as they can be related to ethnic, political, and religious conflict, and the violent state- and empire-building processes which have defined the region since c.1800.

Reid argues that this modern warfare is not solely the product of modern political ‘failure’, but rather has its roots in a network of frontier zones which are both violent and creative. Such borderlands have given rise to markedly militarised political cultures which are rooted in the violence of the nineteenth century, and which in recent decades are manifest in authoritarian systems of government. Reid thus traces the history of Amhara and Tigrayan imperialisms to the nationalist and ethnic revolutions which represented the march of volatile borderlands on the hegemonic centre. He suggests a new interpretation of Ethiopian and Eritrean history, arguing that the key to understanding the region’s turbulent present lies in an appreciation of the role of the armed, and politically fertile, frontier in its deeper past.

2) Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe – Gérard Prunier
Oxford University Press | 2009 | PDF

The Rwandan genocide sparked a horrific bloodbath that swept across sub-Saharan Africa, ultimately leading to the deaths of some four million people. In this extraordinary history of the recent wars in Central Africa, Gerard Prunier offers a gripping account of how one grisly episode laid the groundwork for a sweeping and disastrous upheaval.

Prunier vividly describes the grisly aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, when some two million refugees–a third of Rwanda’s population–fled to exile in Zaire in 1996. The new Rwandan regime then crossed into Zaire and attacked the refugees, slaughtering upwards of 400,000 people. The Rwandan forces then turned on Zaire’s despotic President Mobutu and, with the help of a number of allied African countries, overthrew him. But as Prunier shows, the collapse of the Mobutu regime and the ascension of the corrupt and erratic Laurent Kabila created a power vacuum that drew Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and other African nations into an extended and chaotic war. The heart of the book documents how the whole core of the African continent became engulfed in an intractible and bloody conflict after 1998, a devastating war that only wound down following the assassination of Kabila in 2001. Prunier not only captures all this in his riveting narrative, but he also indicts the international community for its utter lack of interest in what was then the largest conflict in the world.

3) African Guerrillas – Christopher Clapham
Indiana University Press | 1998 | PDF

Insurgencies or guerrilla movements have come to occupy a prominent place in the politics of modern Africa. This book analyzes the relationship between African insurgencies and the local societies in which they are set, the organizational principles upon which the insurgencies are based, and the relationship between the insurgencies and the wider world, both regionally and globally.

4) The Biafran War, 1967-1970. The Struggle for Modern Nigeria – Michael Gould
I.B. Tauris | 2012 | EPUB

The Biafran War was truly a ‘brother’s war’, which saw family and friends on opposing sides. When the breakaway province of Biafra tried to secede from Nigeria in 1967, the result was a civil war of terrifying intensity. The minority Igbo people stood little chance of victory in the face of the overwhelming superiority of the Nigerian army in the north. Envisaged initially as a short conflict, the war confounded all expectations, stretching on for almost three years – the Igbo had far inferior resources and fewer weapons, yet they were determined to defend their right to independence. This book answers many of the most important questions surrounding the conflict – including how such an avoidable conflict came about, why the war became so drawn-out and how the leadership of the opposing Generals – Ojukwu, who led the Biafran revolt, and Gowon, who was President of the Nigerian Federation – defined the conflict. In doing so, Michael Gould offers a fascinating and comprehensive portrait of one of the defining conflicts of modern Africa.

5) Mau Mau Rebellion: The Emergency in Kenya 1952–1956 – Nicholas van der Bijl
Pen and Sword Military | 2017 | EPUB

In The Mau Mau Rebellion, the author describes the background to and the course of a short but brutal late colonial campaign in Kenya. The Mau Mau, a violent and secretive Kikuyu society, aimed to restore the proud tribe’s pre-colonial superiority and rule. The 1940s saw initial targeting of Africans working for the colonial government and by 1952 the situation had deteriorated so badly that a State of Emergency was declared. The plan for mass arrests leaked and many leaders and supporters escaped to the bush where the gangs formed a military structure. Brutal attacks on both whites and loyal natives caused morale problems and local police and military were overwhelmed. Reinforcements were called in, and harsh measures including mass deportation, protected camps, fines, confiscation of property and extreme intelligence gathering employed were employed. War crimes were committed by both sides.

As this well researched book demonstrates the campaign was ultimately successful militarily, politically the dye was cast and paradoxically colonial rule gave way to independence in 1956.